Author: Mrs Taylor

New SEAL theme – New beginnings

As we start the new school year, our SEAL (Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning) theme focuses on New Beginnings.

As we start the new school year, our SEAL (Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning) theme focuses on New beginnings. 

We begin this half term with a focus on manners: I can greet someone politely.

Subsequently, I can make someone feel welcome is the first SEAL statement to launch the theme of New beginnings.

New beginnings allows children the opportunity to discuss and reflect on how they or others may feel in a new situation or setting.  This SEAL theme offers children the opportunity to see themselves as valued individuals within a community, and to contribute to shaping a welcoming, safe and fair learning community for all.

The key areas of learning throughout this theme are empathy, self-awareness, social skills and motivation.

Through discrete SEAL lessons, circle times and across the curriculum, children will explore feelings of happiness and excitement, sadness, anxiety and fearfulness, while learning (and putting into practice) shared models for calming down and problem-solving.

New beginnings supports the development of a learning community in each classroom where all members feel that they belong.  Class contracts, produced at the start of the year, allow children to contribute to how they feel they can achieve a safe and fair learning community.

Time for a Smart Restart?

Coming back to school after the summer holidays is a great time to get into a healthier routine. Find out more with Change4life Smart Restart.

Coming back to school after the holidays is a great time to make a fresh start and to get into a healthier routine for the new term. Change4Life’s brand new campaign – Smart Restart – has now launched and encourages families to take on one change for the better, for six weeks.

Have you seen the TV advert for the campaign?

Research by Public Health England shows that sticking to a healthy routine right from the start of term can have real benefits. Children that do more physical activity have improved concentration levels, enjoy good relationships with classmates and have fewer reports of problems. It is also associated with lower levels of worry amongst children.

So by signing up for the free Smart Restart, you will receive offers, discounts and lots of support with the free app, emails and texts to help you stick to your chosen healthy change all the way through to half term. You can also enjoy Disney family fun and games in the kids’ zone.

From super lunches to beat the treats, there are a variety of changes to follow. Let us know how you get on.

Tryzone success

Three of our Year 6 children have been involved in the pilot Tryzone project, run by the Leeds Rugby foundation, with great success.

Well done to Luke, Nevan and Husna for all their enthusiasm and effort over the last eleven weeks taking part in the pilot Tryzone Learning programme, run by the Leeds Rugby Foundation.  Based at the learning centre at Headingley Carnegie stadium, Tryzone is an education programme to support children and families across Leeds.  As part of the Year 6 group from local schools, Luke, Nevan and Husna have been involved in street dance, yoga, hearing inspirational speeches by Leeds Rhinos players and creating the Tryzone logo, amongst other activites.

Take a look at the highlights from the recent presentation event.

28 June 2013

This week’s whole school homework is a Talk Time one, and it also involves completing the pupil health questionnaire sent home with your child today.

I can give my opinions on health issues.

Emotional health and obesity are the two main health targets we are focussing on to further our healthy schools status and the questions are linked to these areas.  They include:

  • Are you happy at school?
  • What do you enjoy most about playtimes and lunchtimes?

Please support your child to complete the health questionnaire in order to find out their views on some of our key health issues at school.

Completed questionnaires to be returned by Wednesday 03 July.

Skyride

As we come to the end of a very successful bike week, here is some information about a forthcoming local cycling family event.

Launched today, Skyride is a mass participation cycling event taking place in Leeds on 07 July.  This marks the day of 1 year to go until the Tour De France Grande Depart 2014.  The event is anticipated to attract around 10000 participants, many of whom are likely to be families with young children.  For more information please see http://www.goskyride.com/leedsSkyRide.

21 June 2013

This week’s homework is to complete the Growing up in Leeds survey diary.

I can complete my Growing up in Leeds survey diary.

As described in the recent letter and following the lesson with Mrs Freeman this afternoon, Year 5 will be completing the Growing up in Leeds survey over the next few weeks.  This confidential online survey, available to all schools in Leeds, addresses pupil perception of health, safety, enjoyment, achievement and participation.

Data from the survey will be used to inform change across aspects of health in school and provide evidence for our Healthy Schools status.

The diary should be completed as fully as possible over the next week and returned to school by next Friday 28 June.  It will support the children with completing the survey and help to provide the most accurate results.

If you have any questions about the diary or the survey please contact me through the school office.

New SEAL theme – Changes

Starting with a focus on good manners, our SEAL theme, for the rest of the half term, is Changes.

This SEAL theme tackles the issue of change and aims to equip children with an understanding of different types of change, positive and negative, and common responses to it.

The key ideas and concepts behind this theme are:

  • Change can be uncomfortable, because it can threaten our basic needs to feel safe and to belong
  • Change can also be stimulating and welcome
  • Both adults and children can experience a range of powerful and conflicting emotions as a result of change – for example, excitement, anxiety, uncertainty, loss, anger, resentment
  • Worries about change can be made worse by uncertainty, lack of information, or misinformation and lack of support from others
  • People’s responses to and ability to cope with change are very variable, and might be influenced by individual temperament, previous experience of change, and the nature of the change – chosen or imposed, expected or unexpected, within our control or out of our control.

Some children may welcome most forms of change and dislike routine and predictability.  Other children may find even small changes very difficult.

Within school, children, who are coping with or have undergone significant change, are supported in a variety of ways:

  • Our positive ethos within school
  • Support systems, from staff and peers, for children who have undergone change or who maybe new to the school
  • SEAL and circle time sessions where children feel safe to talk about their feelings
  • Class SEAL boxes for children to record any concerns
  • Preparing children wherever possible for planned changes for example, a change of class teacher, Key Stage or even school

We begin this half term with a focus on manners: I don’t talk with my mouth full.

Subsequently, I can get better at my learning is the first SEAL statement to launch the theme of Changes.

Safety, health and social benefits of walking to school

Walk to school, even for part of the way, for a chance to win a prize during Walk to school week, starting tomorrow.

In association with Leeds City Council and Living Streets we are taking part in this year’s Walk to school week.  We all know how congested the area around school can be at the start and end of the school day and so this week we are asking children to take part in the Leeds City Council Ben E. Fit competition.

Children who walk, or scoot, to school or walk part of their journey (at least five minutes, maybe by parking further away than usual) every day will be entered into a prize draw.

On Wednesday, Leeds City Council will deliver a whole school Walk to school assembly followed by pedestrian training for Year 1 and Year 2.  We also start our scooter skills training this Friday for some of our Key Stage 2 children.

Why walk to school?

Our walk to school video has lots of facts and tips about walking to school.

According to Living Streets, there are many benefits to walking to school related to health, safety and the environment.

Time and money

  • Trips to and from the school gates by car waste thousands of hours of parents’ and other road users’ time and cost an average of £400 per family per year
  • At the peak time of 8:35am on week days in term time, the school run generates approximately 21per cent of all trips by urban residents in the UK
  • 16% of school journeys under a mile are driven to school. This distance could be walked in 20 minutes

Safety

  • Driving the school run denies children the chance to develop road safety skills, independence and an understanding of their local environment
  • Child pedestrian collisions on the walk to school peak at about 12 years of age. This could be due to parents not preparing their children for travelling independently and practising road safety skills when their children are younger
  • Parents of children who are driven to school overestimate the risks of abduction and ‘stranger danger’ while underestimating the risks of traffic

Benefits for your children

  • Children who walk to school are actively engaged with their community and have better knowledge of their local area
  • Children who walk to school have wider social networks: In a study by Living Streets, 84 per cent of the children who walked to school reported always or sometimes meeting up with classmates on the way to school, while only 66 per cent of those who were driven to school had the opportunity to do so
  • Walking to school improves children’s social development in future years
  • The more contact children have with their natural environment, the higher they score in tests of concentration and self-discipline
  • Short-term and even superficial exposure to natural areas through brief walks have been found to have positive effects on mood, reducing feelings of anger and anxiety
  • An American study found that after as little as five minutes of moderate to vigorous activity (i.e., running, walking), children were able to concentrate more

Health benefits of walking for parents and children

  • 24.5 per cent of adults and 14 per cent of children (aged two to ten years old) in the UK are obese and obesity can reduce life expectancy by 9 years on average
  • Young people who are obese are likely to have lower levels of fitness, suffer from social discrimination and have low self-esteem and lower quality of life
  • Research has suggested that, without appropriate intervention, overweight or obesity could affect as many as nine out of ten adults and two out of three children by 2050
  • Walking one mile (1.6 km) can burn at least 100 calories of energy and walking two miles (3.2 km) a day, three times a week, can help reduce weight by one pound (0.5 kg) every three weeks
  • Three out of ten boys and four out of ten girls do not cover the recommended minimum of one hour a day of physical activity
  • Children who generally travel to and from school by car, bus or other vehicle are more likely to be overweight at age 5 than those who walk or cycle

The environment

  • The school run is adding two million tonnes of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere every year
  • It is estimated that 17% of the total school carbon emissions can be attributed to school travel

 

This curry is the best…

Year 5 and 6 have been creating vegetable and chick pea curry.  Here are some of the quotes about what we thought:

‘Amazing…awesome…surprisingly nice…I don’t usually like curry…this curry is the best…really, really enjoyed this.’

In conclusion, this is a quick, easy and flavoursome recipe so we encourage you to try it yourself.  If you don’t like some of the ingredients, you can change them.  Next time, we might add extra spice, chicken, tomato, quorn, peas or sweetcorn.  We hope you enjoy this as much as we did.

Vegetable curry

Ingredients

  • 1 onion
  • 1 pepper
  • 1 courgette
  • 150g mushrooms
  • 1 clove garlic
  • 1x15ml spoon oil
  • 2x15ml spoons curry paste
  • 2x15ml spoons tomato puree
  • 200g chickpeas, canned (drained)
  • 1 can coconut milk (reduced fat)

Method

  1. Peel the onion
  2. Slice the mushroom, courgette and pepper
  3. Heat the oil in a saucepan and fry the onion, garlic, mushrooms, pepper and courgette for 5 minutes
  4. Stir in the curry paste, tomato puree, chickpeas and coconut milk
  5. Simmer for 20 minutes
  6. Serve with rice and / or naan bread.